santa.

ben was totally okay with seeing santa. until he sat on his lap.
the entire time he was in line with us, he kept saying ho, ho, ho and pointing to santa. so cute.
totally thought he might not freak out... but he did. ;)

hope you enjoy your time with santa more than ben did.
happy christmas.
be back on monday.... maybe!

tis the season.

for more of my boyfriend on snl.
;-)

my boss told me about this one. yay!

the one where...

shannon and nick go on a date!
woot. woot!
plans for a hot dinner date {just us. no other couples...  when we get a sitter it's usually for an event of some sort. never just for the two of us... so it's like the first time in a little under two years that we can sit and drink and talk in peace!} followed by some last minute grocery shopping for christmas festivities.
yay for mom's who live close and love to babysit.

;-)

wip 12.18.10

i cannot get behind with the next one being christmas. the pictures would be out of control!!

friday:
nick and i both had the day off. was so nice.
took ben to get some winter boots. he totally looked like a cranberry farmer to me.

ran a ton of errands. still not done with christmas shopping. need a few odds and ends! ack.

came home and ben and daddy played piggy back.

then after his nap, ben learned to play mario kart. ;)

 
and played with daddy's crab legs at dinner.
was a total trooper through it. the dinner, i mean. it was a doozy. started off great and took a down hill turn when the main courses arrived. this was about 830 at night. two late nights in a row and he was a champ.

saturday:
more errands. after a stop at the bank for some fraudulent charges. sigh. people suck.
the reindeer tracks blizzard from dq made it better. however, i didn't realize the mini was so mini....

nick finally got the lights working. not the greatest picture, but whatever.

then i had a nice night out with the girls and nick and kevin, my brother, enjoyed some video game time!

sunday:
a last minute decision to go to breakfast with santa.
the restaurant was able to seat our crazy party without reservations. yay!
the kids had a blast together. ben really enjoyed breakfast.

then it was off to santa's village.
ben wasn't a fan of the snowman....

he didn't really like santa either. no surprise since the last visit wasn't the best either.
he calmed down pretty quickly and were able to grab a family photo.

ben's first candy cane. he devoured it.

yay family photos. ;)

then grandma came over with grandpa and hung out with beaner so we could do our christmas shopping. was so nice. and seemed so quick!

after his nap, ben was insistent on playing in the hamper. and then putting all of his balls in the hamper. silly boy.

had to try on daddy's hat too.

and nabbing daddy's pretzel, rolo, m & m concoction.

great weekend. wish they all could be the nice mix of go and no go! sometimes i need a weekend after my weekend!

wip 12.11.10

better late than never, right?

friday:
busy friday. i had a meeting for work. took ben with me. he was hysterical: running around the office and throwing his ball to the doctors. so cute.
saw these crazy giant snowmen while running errands.

then it was ben's christmas party.
i must share the video.... whenever i upload it! ben was hysterical. a total ham and danced up there like he knew everyone in the audience!

a blurry wave...

the spot where he watched the rest of the show. he was so good watching the other classes. so sweet.

saturday:
drove to indy for the pressner bros christmas.
an early morning breakfast at dunkin donuts. {those sausage pancake bites are delish.}
ben enjoyed opening his presents. christmas should be interesting!

then it was white elephant time. a real white elephant. something from your house. nothing could be purchased.  the craziest were a lamp and a painting. then the rest were pretty tame. looking forward to next years!

drove home and braved the impending blizzard to go to a christmas party. i totally felt like i was in college. i think we left our house around 930. twas a late night. i think we got back home around 3! i'm too old for this!

the best picture of the evening. ;)

sunday:
blizzard! best picture i could manage.

had a lazy day at home recovery from our crazy, hectic saturday.
ben thoroughly enjoyed his chocolate pudding dessert!

another excuse.

i'm watching top chef all stars and finishing up some projects from yesterday. and painting my nails. finger nails. with glitter polish. i asked nick if it was too 5th grade and he looked at me like i was crazy. so i'm unsure if he thought the question was completely insane or just me? i guess i'll find out when i show up at work tomorrow with sparkly nails!

and as for top chef, i cannot decide who i'm rooting for... but i'm kinda sick of jamie and her soups. she's cute but that girl makes nothing but soup! and i told nick we're going to sprout. i love dale. ;)  maybe casey. or richard. not angelo that's for sure.

christmas.

i have the christmas bug.
not sure why...
but i'm in the mood to finish up cards, wrap, and plan our christmas dinner. {i'm pretty sure ham isn't going to be on the menu!}
i'm not promising a less lame post tomorrow, we'll see how chaotic my day turns out to be.
i do promise to have the wip up before the weekend. crazy high expectations, right?!

snow day

i'm taking one from blogging since i couldn't/didn't take one from work.
crazy snow storm.
i wish grown ups got snow days.
today was exhausting. kinda felt like dory. wanted to say, just keep swimming, just keep swimming. {the busy-ness did make the day go by. so i guess that is a good thing.}
it's a crazy week since one of my docs is getting ready to go out of town. combine that with a few coworkers not being able to make it in and not so many cancellations equals one tired shannon. not to mention the almost 2 hour commute.  i don't know how anyone could do that on a regular basis...
so i'm being lazy, and taking a blog break.
will upload pics/videos soon.
also have a ton of recipes that we've tried out. i just have to figure out what they were since i haven't been keeping track.
and i'm oh so close to finishing little women. woot! can't decide which classic i want to read next....
k.
off to take a bath, read, and relax.
;)

wip 12.4.10

friday:
day home with the wee man. he was feeling under the weather and took a three hour nap at 8am. seriously. he was up for like 45 minutes and just miserable. so we snuggled in his rocking chair and he finally fell asleep. ben also took two other naps that day... about an hour each. i say he was not feeling well!
when nick got home, i ran to old navy for some retail therapy. spent a bit of time at old navy and came home with lots of stuff for not so much, which is always good!

saturday:
first major snowfall of the year. so happy i didn't have to drive in it! nick had to run to work... so he ran a few errands on the way home. was nice having him do some shopping!

when ben was napping, nick was playing his video game. he hadn't hit a save point when ben had gotten up from his nap and when i brought ben downstairs he just wanted to sit on daddy's lap and watch. nick ended up hiding his character in random spots through out the game and so ben played peek a boo with them!

sunday:
beaner is still sick. can't decide if we should cancel our scheduled photo appointment. we decide to go since there are no guarantees that he would be better and that our weekends would align with the studios for a good appointment time....
the pictures turn out good. however, ben does look sick. but that's life. not always pretty. not always perfect. and we'll look back and say, 'oh yeah, ben was sick...'
when we were waiting for the pics to print, we ran to the mall and got some new gloves! yay sales and coupons. and decided to see santa. ben was not a happy camper.  i think it was a combo of not feeling well and being sleepy. we might take our chances and try to see santa one more time... i think both sets of pictures deserve their own post... maybe. can't decide if i'm just gonna surprise everyone at christmas...

came home and relaxed. ate some pretzels from wetzel's pretzels.

then ben napped while mommy and daddy ordered christmas cards. i just wasn't into it this year. hoping when they get here, i'll be a bit more excited and ready to go!

tea love.

i <3 tea.

i usually average 3 glasses or so a week.
but now that it's winter and i've been feeling under the weather, i've been drinking it like crazy. that and the fact that my big boss shared some of her awesome collection with me. seriously, she gave me like 7 different varieties to try. so nice! and so tasty.

have been using this awesome tea infuser. love it. nick bought it sometime last year and i hadn't really used it. was sticking to non loose tea. but now, i'm not sure i can go back to bags!

my tea obsession has even trumped my starbucks trips for peppermint mochas!  which is completely crazy since the mochas are seasonal and i need to drink em up while i can!  have also heard good things about their teas, so i might have to be adventurous and give some of those a try.

december 2010 edition.

of quotes that i've collected over the past month.
most come from daily emails. thank you for my old yahoo account... it would drive me nuts to save them in gmail. my type a self in full effect. ;)

~ resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. you can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.  -elizabeth edwards, resilience

~ a hunch is creativity trying to tell you something. -frank capra

~ things are beautiful if you love them. -jean anouilh

~ anything you're good at contributes to happiness. -bertrand russell

~the most exhausting thing in life, i have discovered, is being insincere. -ann morrow lindbergh

~ a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow. -charlotte bronte

~gratitude is the sign of noble souls. -aesop

~ call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. -jane howard

~ life is a series of surprises. -ralph waldo emerson

~ there must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but i don't know many of them. -sylvia plath

~ no entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. -lady mary wortley montagu

~ people always call it luck when you have acted more sensibly than they have.  -anne tyler

~ life is like a mirror. smile at it and it smiles back at you. -peace pilgrim

~ too much of a good thing can be wonderful. -mae west

i have no words.

for this.
booty pop.

okay. maybe a few.
first of all, wha?
secondly, it was advertised at walgreens this week. really, is it a super stocking stuffer. note to readers, i would not like one. my booty has enough pop on it's own thank you very much.
and lastly, wha?

wip x 2

the first weekend that i skipped....

the weekend of 11.20.10

friday:
sick day with mom and ben. i just couldn't find the energy to do anything. i even skipped out on girl's night which never happens. nick took ben to run some errands and i had a bit of quite time... ahhh....

saturday:
a date to see harry potter. LOVED it. i wanna be hermione. so sad that there is only one more movie left. so sad. then it was dinner at quaker steak. nick had to try the atomic wings. stupid boy....


reading over the waiver. yes, there's a waiver to eat the damn things!

the 'before' picture.

the 'after' picture. not so happy now, are we nick?

he did it. and totally scored a bumper sticker for the defeat!

afterwards, nick and i had a hot date on our own of grocery shopping. totally romantical, i know.

sunday:
a day of errands. and a peppermint shake from steak and shake. yumola.
no pictures.
i told you i was being lazy this month!!

and onto the weekend of 11.27.10
it's a holiday weekend. i'm adding extra days. ;)

wednesday:
black wednesday. a nice evening in with the boys. nick had a rough day, so we were happy to just chill. ben enjoyed some beefaroni.

had to help himself from mommy and daddy's bowl. couldn't just eat what was on his plate....

ahhh. so yummy.

what? do i have something on my face?

thursday:
turkey day.

dinner #1 was at glenwood oaks.
beaner did awesome. sat and ate dinner with everyone. he really enjoyed the zucchini sticks in the appetizer!

and he really had fun playing with nick's empty coffee cup.

then it was on to dinner #2 at nick's sister's house.

the cousins had a blast being scared by nick and cousin megan.

then at the end of the evening, cousin megan decided that ben should wear her hair bow...


the manlier version...

the not so manly version!

and some crazy griswold house nearby....

friday:
black friday.

did some shopping! we couldn't help it. our christmas tree was going to fall over. we had to go to target. ;-)

put up some of the decorations and had a lazy day.

saturday:
another lazy day. but we did run a few errands and stopped to visit my parents and check out their new kitchen appliances! yay for working ovens and stoves!

ben proving that he is related to my brother. {long story.}

enjoying his new favorite thing. dipping.
he dips everything. preferably in upup. aka ketchup.

the decorations which are still a work in progress. 

sunday:
holy is this the longest weekend post ever, or what?
thanks for sticking with me.

yoda checking out the christmas tree.
{love that nick thought to take pictures while i was still sleeping!}

ben's first pomegranate encounter.

then it was outside time. 

beanerman checking out the ladder.

this one just cracks me up. a not so happy wee man.

playing on his slide. 

 helping daddy figure out a plan of attack to put up the lights.
unfortunately, this did not include ben telling daddy he should check all strands before hanging them because the upper set won't turn on! guess, nick had a project for this weekend now...

then ben played with a hamper for hours. not gonna share the pics. they're kinda lame.
this one did make me smile. ben has a thing for balls. he was insistent on putting most of them on the couch and sitting with them!

phew. k.
caught up again on those pesky wip posts. ;o)

sorry for picture overload!